Saturday, September 08, 2007

The Republican War

W surprised a lot of us during his August 21, 2007 speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars at their convention in Kansas City, Missouri.

During the early days of the war, Bush decried comparisons of Iraq to Vietnam as borderline treason. Now he uses it to justify the ongoing carnage and profiteering for Lord Cheney. I will not get into a lengthy discussion comparing Iraq and Vietnam except for one distinction of critical importance.

The Iraq War differs from the Vietnam War dramatically in political context.

Dramatically.

The Vietnam War did NOT have remotely the polarizing politics of our current fiasco. With Vietnam, our two political parties differed, but only slightly, as sentiment towards the war tanked south and further south. Together, as a nation, support for the war in the beginning was behind President Johnson as he escalated our efforts to stem the growing tide of Communism, the greatest threat to the free world. Together, as a nation, support for the war crumbled as it became a quagmire killing our kids with no end in sight.

In this context, the Iraq War could not be more different. The Iraq War is a Republican war. The Iraq War was started, supported, and continues to be supported by Republicans. The most hawkish of the Democrats could be described as a rather mild “yes.”

Further, without getting into the “triggers” for Vietman, we certainly did not have the outright deception, twisting of facts, and distortion of intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq. Lord Cheney betrayed and continues to betray us with lies about Iraq’s ties to terrorism and 911.

As a result of this White House, the country has politically bifurcated with a chasm not seen since the Civil War. With Vietnam, both sides of the aisle went south. With Iraq, the blue and independents are tanking. The GOP, apparently Lord Dick’s pussies, continues to rally behind the war. Democrats face increasing criticism for their failure to effect change. Surprising no one, I sympathize with the Democrats. Their senate majority is razor thin and their house majority, while better, still lacks the numbers to muscle the White House. At least they are turning some screws.

The Iraq War is solid Republican. They sold it, bought it, built it, and run it. Unfortunately, we and our children will pay the bill, which transcends calculation. In 2008, the Democrats should make it very clear to everyone in this country that the Republicans made this mess, and the only ones that will end it are Democrats.

The GOP corporate whores have sold this nation. In my opinion, a vote for a Republican in 2008 is an act of treason.

PS - Note the Independents. In seeking to rule this country, Republicans are losing it.

This raises a big question though. Will voters behave retrospectively (in this case punish for past failures) or behave prospectively, and look to the future of who has the best ideas for leading us out.

I think retrospective voters will clearly benefit the Democrats, as the poll tracking you show suggests. However, when we start thinking prospectively...things get very very muddy...AND...I think this benefits Republicans.

Americans want us out when asked bluntly. But when the "how soon?", "how?", "what will be the impact?", "expenses?", questions are asked, Democrats don't look much different at all from Republicans. The GOP also seems more sincere...at least they seem to believe what mess they feed.

This has been the problem with Democrats for a long long time. They never appear very sincere when talking about such issues. Liza might agree...as they triangulate, they look kind of silly.